The National Trial Lawyers
  • Home
    • Meet Our Team
    • Contact Us
    • Mission & Goals
    • FAQ
  • Webinars
  • News
  • Membership Directory
    • Top 100 Map – Civil Plaintiff
    • Top 100 Map – Criminal Defense
    • Top 40 Under 40 Map – Civil Plaintiff
    • Top 40 Under 40 Map – Criminal Defense
  • Top 100
    • Civil Plaintiff Officers / Executive Committee
    • Criminal Defense Officers / Executive Committee
    • Benefits
    • About
    • Top 100 Presidents Message
    • Diplomat
    • Membership Renewal
    • Member Profile Updates
    • Top 100 Badge
  • Top 40
    • Civil Plaintiff Officers / Executive Committee
    • Criminal Defense Officers / Executive Committee
    • Top 40 Under 40 Trial Academy Bootcamp
    • Benefits
    • About
    • Top 40 Presidents Message
    • Membership Renewal
    • Member Profile Updates
    • Top 40 Badge
  • Specialty Assoc
    • About
    • Shop
    • Officers
    • Membership Renewal
    • Member Profile Updates
  • Nominate
    • Top 100
    • Top 40
    • Specialty Association
    • Trial Lawyer Hall of Fame
    • Trial Lawyer of the Year
    • Trial Team of the Year
    • America’s Most Influential Trial Lawyer
    • America’s Most Influential Law Firm
    • Lifetime Achievement Award
  • Shop
  • Magazine
    • A-List
  • Education and Networking Agenda
    • Trial Lawyers Summit
    • Top 40 Under 40 Trial Academy Boot Camp
    • Mass Torts Made Perfect
    • The Lanier Trial Academy Master Class 6.0
    • The Business Of Law
    • Webinars
  • Hall of Fame
    • Trial Lawyer Hall of Fame

$1.25M Verdict for Man Who Cut Off Fingers with Unsafe Table Saw

Posted on September 25, 2014 by Larry Bodine
unsafe yobi table saw

A former chief engineer for Ryobi told jurors that the addition of a simple piece of curved metal – called a riving knife – would eliminate nearly all kickbacks.

An Illinois woodworker recovered a $1.25 million jury verdict in Chicago federal court after he was severely injured while using a defective Ryobi table saw.

The case is one of hundreds of similar injury cases being litigated by Heygood, Orr & Pearson of Dallas involving defective table saws.

In this case, 30-year-old Brandon Stollings lost his index finger and parts of two other fingers when his Ryobi saw experienced a kickback, which occurs when wood pinches a table saw blade and forces it back toward the operator.

He was injured in 2007 while doing some work for his mother and stepfather at their home in Trevor, Wisconsin, using a Ryobi Model BTS20R table saw. As he fed laminate flooring through the table saw, the wood kicked back, pulling his hand into the blade.

Simple change would eliminate danger

During the two-week trial in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, David Peot, the former chief engineer for Ryobi, told jurors that the addition of a simple piece of curved metal – called a riving knife – would eliminate nearly all kickbacks.

Despite this fix, Ryobi and most other manufacturers did not equip saws with riving knives until 2010. Instead, most saws included a fixed splitter and an unwieldy and seldom-used blade guard that restricted visibility of the blade. It had to be removed for many types of cuts and was difficult and time-consuming to remove and reinstall.

“The Consumer Product Safety Commission came to the table saw industry in 1998 and urged them to change their guards because they were not being used by most consumers, leading to 30,000 to 40,000 injuries each year, including 3,000 to 4,000 amputations,” said Heygood, Orr & Pearson partner Eric Pearson, adding that the industry resisted making those safety changes.

Manufacturers refuse safety options

In addition, manufacturers have refused to adopt other established safety mechanisms, such as flesh-sensing and blade-braking technology offered by Sawstop, said firm partner Michael Heygood.

“Instead of licensing this important safety technology, Ryobi and other saw manufacturers formed a joint venture to try to design around Sawstop’s patents so they could avoid paying a 3 percent royalty,” said Mr. Heygood.

Sawstop is the only manufacturer offering flesh-detection technology, which stops a table saw’s spinning blade within milliseconds of detecting contact with flesh, virtually eliminating serious injury.

Heygood, Orr & Pearson is a business litigation and personal injury law firm based in Dallas. More information is available at http://www.hop-law.com. The firm was assisted in the Stollings case by attorneys John Cushing of Chicago and Richard Sullivan of Boston.

 

Posted in Blog, Personal Injury, Product Liability

Comments are closed.

News Categories

Read about other Top Jury Verdicts

Virginians Will Receive $489 Million in a Payday Loan Settlement

Virginians Will Receive $489 Million in a Payday Loan Settlement

Online payday loan companies that charged as much as 919% interest will spend $489 million to reimburse some 555,000 borrower[Read More...]
The State of Minnesota Will Pay $1.5 Million to a Man Who Alleged Excessive Force During an Arrest

The State of Minnesota Will Pay $1.5 Million to a Man Who Alleged Excessive Force During an Arrest

Minneapolis has agreed to pay $1.5 million to a man who said police used excessive force when he was arrested during the prot[Read More...]
A $230 Million Settlement Is Reached Over a 2015 Southern California Oil Spill

A $230 Million Settlement Is Reached Over a 2015 Southern California Oil Spill

The owner of an oil pipeline that spewed thousands of barrels of crude oil onto Southern California beaches in 2015 has agree[Read More...]
The LeClairRyan-UnitedLex Dispute Reaches a Pending $21 Million Settlement

The LeClairRyan-UnitedLex Dispute Reaches a Pending $21 Million Settlement

After a prolonged mediation process, the LeClairRyan bankruptcy estate looks to have reached a sizable settlement in one of t[Read More...]
The Families of Holyoke Soldiers Home Victims Reach a $56 Million Settlement

The Families of Holyoke Soldiers Home Victims Reach a $56 Million Settlement

Massachusetts has agreed to pay $56 million to settle a class-action lawsuit brought by the families of veterans who died or [Read More...]

#LegalNews

@@TheNTLtop100

Contact Us | Terms of Use | Privacy Policy

Attorney information and content provided on this website is provided for the benefit of members of The National Trial Lawyers and as a public service by Legal Associations Management, Inc. The website and all data are the property of Legal Associations Management, Inc. Data, including without limitation attorney information and content, on the site may not be mined, sold, or used commercially for any purpose without the explicit written consent of Legal Associations Management, Inc. This site may not be accessed by any automated program for extracting data for any use. By accessing and using the site you agree that you will not develop, support or use software, devices, scripts, robots, or any other means or processes (including crawlers, browser plug-ins and add-ons, or any other technology) to scrape data or otherwise copy profiles and other data. Unauthorized use or attempted unauthorized use of this system may subject you to both civil and criminal penalties.